Thursday, March 22, 2007

A pathology report indicated that Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of "manual strangulation," according to a statement from Jamaican police commissioner Lucius Thomas.

Woolmer's death came less than 24 hours after former world champion Pakistan was beaten and eliminated by the relatively unknown Irish team on St. Patrick's Day, one of the biggest shocks in World Cup cricket history. The loss on Saturday prompted outrage among the team's hardcore fans, with protesters burning effigies of Woolmer and the team captain in Karachi.

Asked about suspects, Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields would only say, "We have a few definite lines of inquiry," acknowledging later that betting on cricket matches was among them.

Here in America, we like to burn dumpsters and maybe turn over a car when our team wins a championship but we rarely kill the coach of the losing team.